Prince's post-Warner catalog -- the records he made for NPG and elsewhere, beginning with 1995's The Gold Experience -- was a mess while he was alive, due to his tendency to hop from label to label, along with his aversion to digital downloads and streaming. Two years after his tragic death in 2016, his catalog began to take shape in the digital realm, thanks to a deal Sony Legacy struck with the
Prince Estate. In August 2018, 23 albums
Prince released between 1995 and 2010 appeared on all services, and along with them came the double-disc compilation
Anthology: 1995-2010. Frankly, this kind of compilation was badly needed. Once he freed himself from Warner,
Prince recorded so prolifically that even diehards had a hard time keeping track.
Anthology: 1995-2010 provides a way to navigate this vast catalog. Even at 37 tracks,
Anthology can't help but miss excellent moments, such as the supple '70s soul covers he scattered throughout his albums and, sadly, his last big hit, "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World," which is absent due to legal reasons. Set this aside, and
Anthology shows how
Prince turned himself into a clever stylist in the last act of his career, often returning to the funk, pop, and especially soul that he used as primary sources during his glory days in the '80s. Instead of splicing this all together,
Prince preferred to jump from style to style during his NPG recordings, but having these sprawling recordings condensed to a compilation highlights not just his versatility, but how his sense of craft never failed him. This is invaluable for the curious, but even the dedicated who listened to the albums upon release but never revisited them should find this enlightening. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine